Our first weeks in the new house are pretty cool but there are a few teething problems, as is to be expected.
The most glaring mistake is that there is not a square corner in the house. It’s actually not that noticeable but it makes placing furniture a bit tricky.
The western boundary of the house and the internal wall downstairs were measured off the back wall of the property which is a metre longer at the far end than the end where the house is located. The eastern boundary of the house was measured of our neighbours back fence which is dead straight. It’s most noticeable in the master bedroom where the floorboards don’t run parralel to the walls. The wall that separates the bedroom from the walk in robe and ensuite appears to have been added by sight.
Funnily, it works to our advantage where it matters most. The living area opens out at the front to meet the view of the pool.
Next, the upstairs bathroom is not watertight and water leaks down the living room wall behind the TV. Once that leak is fixed it begins leaking through the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom. We eventually discover that when the shower was installed the drain pipe it was not fully attached to the drain hole.
The upstairs balcony also catches alot of rain whenever the wind blows from the south, the east or the west. The rain collects and drips downstairs between the gaps in the upstairs floorboards.
It takes months to properly seal all the gaps and the better part of a year to find the right combination of canopies and awnings to keep the weather at bay.
We didn’t plan to include a kitchen as all our meals will be prepared at the guesthouse but it’s clear that we need some sort of storage and wash up area for breakfast bowls and coffee cups.
We buy a small cabinet as well as a stone wash basin and a water dispenser and set these between two pillars on the open eastern wall. We then employ someone to make a small cupboard to stand the wash basin and an overhead shelf for coffee cups and other items.
It’s compact but it works.
We have filled the spare metre of space next to the eastern wall with white pebbles and stepping stones. We have planted a flowering vine to grow over the timber screen.
Overall it’s a very relaxing space.
Kevin and Kezia are enjoying their sense of independence, Dewi and I are enjoying our sense of freedom and we’re all enjoying the pool.
Our first guests arrive from Jakarta. They‘ve been recommended to stay with us by a friend of Dewi’s and are in Lombok as part of a delegation from the Department of Tourism, in Jakarta. They have come to Lombok to upgrade bathroom and waste collection facilities at one of the local beaches.
They book the entire guesthouse and stay for ten nights. And we’re off to a flying start.
There are still a number of European travellers floating around, both here and in Bali who have chosen to stay in Indonesia rather than fly back to lockdown in their own countries.
We host a number who come and go several times as they make trips around the island.
The Indonesian Government has stopped issuing new tourist visas but has wisely decided to offer visa extensions to those travellers still here both to allow them time to make arrangements for onward travel but also to keep them supporting local businesses who are clearly doing it tough.
A group of local women book the guesthouse out for two nights and host a combined birthday party for 50 of their friends. It is a largely unmasked affair and I am kicking myself for having let my guard down by sharing a karaoke microphone to let rip on a couple of classic rock bangers.
Fortunately, I escape the incident unscathed and it seems that, just maybe, the virus is close to having run its course on Lombok island.
Such is not the case however on the islands of Java and Bali. The government reopened Bali to domestic tourism in July and people from the neighbouring island of Java flooded in. This, just as Java is experiencing an explosion of covid cases after the Eid’l Fitri holiday.
It is poor management in the extreme but a genuine attempt on the central government’s part to help boost the faltering economy of Bali.
Still, the plan proves counter productive as surging infections on the tiny tourist island mean it has to shelve plans to reopen to international tourists in September.
Lombok doesn’t get anywhere near the same tourist numbers and is spared the worst of the Javanese crisis. It is already clear to me however that the guesthouse isn’t going to make money from domestic tourism alone and I am hoping for a return to some sort of normality before my personal savings are gone completely.
The USA is now leading the world with nearly half a million confirmed cases and close to ten thousand deaths. By December the number of deaths has doubled and confirmed cases have tripled.
Clearly, countries that put their economies ahead of the nation’s health pay a hefty price.
But the alternative hardly seems any better to friends and family in my home town of Melbourne who are currently half way through what becomes a 112 day lockdown, one of the longest and toughest suppression efforts in the world.
And while they manage to bring case numbers down from more than 700 a day at the beginning of lockdown in July to zero by the end of October – and then to hold the number of new cases at zero for the next three months, the toll on people’s mental health can only be imagined.
Parents working from home with kids also home, juggling office duties while overseeing online learning and being afforded few opportunities to go outside for a break and some fresh air is just one example of the pressure many face.
People living alone and being unable visit others or receive visitors is another.
Alcohol consumption and reports of domestic abuse and violence, while not always linked, are also on the rise as incompatible couples are forced to make the best of a bad situation and often make it worse.
Still others are forced by necessity to break gambling addictions and speak of how much extra money they now have and how much they have enjoyed reacquainting themselves with their partners and children.
Overall Melbourne people come out of lockdown a little bruised but unbeaten. The UK had a similar number of daily cases as the state of Victoria when Melbourne first started lockdown and have hit 10,000 cases a day by the time Melbourne reaches zero.
It’s nothing less than a world beating effort and a defining moment for the people of Melbourne. A moment which will steel them for the challenges ahead and worthy of a bloody good pat on the back. (Not to mention a trip to the nearest pub.)
I have been speaking to mum regularly during this time and while she is safe and well she is languishing in the fact that she cannot visit her friends inside the nursing home and that no-one comes to check on her.
She occasionally sneaks around to the back of the complex and speaks to one of her good friends through the friend’s bedroom window.
Graeme and Kiyoe also come to visit most weekends, care-giving being one of the few reasons you are able to leave home. They also accompany her to medical appointments.
She has been offered a permanent place in the nursing home if she wants it and while I think now is as good a time as any and that it’s probably what she wants, Graeme thinks she should try and hold off while she still can to maintain her independence and her ability to come and go as she pleases.
She seems happy to go with Graeme’s recommendation.
A week later they videocall me after a visit to the Peter Macallum Cancer Clinic in Melbourne. The news is not good.
A new scan has revealed three grape sized lumps under her right armpit.
The cancer has now entered her lymph system. There is nothing more the doctors can do. At best they give her three to six months to live.
Australian’s use alot of rhyming slang and this is what would be known as her last waltz with Johnny Dancer.
It’s been three years since the skin cancer on her right index finger was first diagnosed and she has stared it down twice since. So although we all sensed this was going to be the inevitable outcome, it still comes as a bit of a shock.
Mum however is at peace with the news. She says she has lived a good and long life and she will be fine as long as she can manage the pain.
Graeme says he will speak to her GP re medication and let the nursing home know we need the next available placement.
I’m a bit lost for words so I tell her I love her and that I will start looking for flights back to Australia.
